Rencontre with Colin Barrett

Set in Ballina, in the west of Ireland, a simmering feud between small-time dealer Cillian English and County Mayo's fraternal enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. When the reclusive Dev answers his door one Friday night, he finds Doll – Cillian's bruised, sullen, teenage brother – in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins, goaded by his dead mother's dog, Dev is unwillingly drawn headlong into the Ferdias' revenge fantasy.Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can't shake the feeling that something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll. Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night, and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.

Colin Barrett grew up in County Mayo and was propelled into the literary limelight when his short story collection Young Skins (2013) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His second collection Homesickness (2022) was named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Oprah Daily and The Irish Times and Wild Houses was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.

“droll, linguistically inventive, poignant” (The Guardian)

“Sublime… Wild Houses is a thrillingly moreish novel with some of the sharpest dialogue I’ve read in any recent debut and characters who held me captive until the very last page.” (Sunday Times)